Mass effect war in heaven
by Darth Mixalot of Camelot
Summary: A team of brave men and women discover not just prothean artifacts on Mars, but something infinitely older and infinitely more devious.
1. Chapter 1

Mass Effect: The war in Heaven

Chapter 1

"I think it's time," A man said. He was old with short greying hair and a barely noticeable patch of stubble growing unnoticed on his chin. "I think the world is ready to know the truth about the war," He said to no one, in particular. The man sat down, grabbed a pen, and started to write.

The year is 2148 CE. Humanity is finally following its dream of spreading across the stars, but there is one problem spaceflight is limited to slower-than-light speeds. However, this would soon cease to be a problem. Everyone knows that humanity found experimental and normal prothean tech there, and while that may be the truth, it is most certainly not the whole truth.

It all started fairly normally, as it always does. A scan of Mars showed some anomalies and a team was sent out to investigate.

"Sir, I see something," A short, squat brown-haired man said.

"What is it, Jackson?" A tall, thin man replied.

"I think it's an entrance, sir" A woman to Jackson's right said.

"Take us there," The tall man ordered.

The transport lurched forward, as it slowly traversed the unending sands of the red planet. They travelled in complete silence as each member of the 5-man team thought about what the prestige they would get if this turned out to be an important discovery. Suddenly, the transport stopped.

"All right. Get your suits on and get out" The tall man bellowed.

A chorus of "Yes, sir" answered his order.

The suits were crude and bulky, but they got the job done and for now that would be sufficient.

The team slowly advanced in to the small entrance. The entrance was covered by millennia of dust and sand, but it was fairly large and easy to spot.

After walking for a few minutes through dark and foreboding corridors, they came to a large door. The door was made of some strange metallic substance that seemed to writhe under the touch. Oddly, the dust and sand that coated the floors and walls of the corridor seemed to shy away from the door in fear.

"Open this door, Jackson" the tall man barked.

"But sir we have already found proof of alien life forms. Surely, we should call this in and more qualified people can come and look at this" Jackson stated.

The tall man's hands lashed out and grabbed the front of Jackson's grey suit.

"Are you questioning my orders, Private Jackson?" He growled.

"No, sir. I'll open the door now, sir," Jackson shouted.

Jackson scurried away and searched for some kind of electronic interface near the door.

The rest of the squad stared in shock at the sudden change of atmosphere.

"We cannot afford to waste time. This could be the greatest discovery in human history and this" He sneered. "Man. Wishes for us to let others take the credit for our discovery." He declared.

Some of the members of the team started nodding their heads in agreement.

"Sir, I think I found something," Jackson shouted.

"Then open it, Jackson," The tall man bellowed.

"Yes, sir" Jackson bit out. He pressed a few buttons at the console he found.

The door was lit up by a series of seemingly random shades of green before opening and revealing a large open room filled with banks of computers and multiple exits, but the thing that dominated the room was a massive door, similar to what they had just passed through, but 100 times more massive.

Most of the team fanned out across the room in search of information, but the tall man walked directly to the large, ornate door.

"Sir, I think this place was a listening post." A woman said.

"Were they observing us?" The tall man asked.

"As far as I can tell, sir, they have some sensors facing Earth, but most of them are pointing towards that door," the woman said.

"Cole! Set up a thermal scanner near that door," the tall man barked to a man at the other end of the room.

"Sir, yes, Sir" the fair-skinned, balding man called.

He set up the equipment and jumped back when he turned it on.

"Sir!" He cried

"What, Cole?" The tall man said, while walking over.

"Whatever material that door is made from is messing with the sensors, but there is a massive thermal signature on the other end of that door." Cole yelped.

"Jackson, I want that door opened yesterday," The tall man roared.

Jackson walked to the door and found the switch.

"Sir, are you sure about this?" Jackson questioned.

"I make the decisions here. Open it!" He barked.

An almighty hiss erupted from the colossal door and revealed a pitch-dark room.

The rest of the team shied away from the massive gaping hole, but the tall man ventured forth in to the oppressive darkness with his head held high.

The room seemed to consist of a thin walkway and a massive void. It was extremely cold, as if the heat regulators on his suit had failed, though when he checked they were working fine.

An almighty roar erupted from somewhere in the vast expanse of the darkness. The tall man jumped back in shock, as suddenly the room was illuminated by a pale green light.

A creature was hanging over the vast chasm. It was both beautiful and terrible to be hold. It seemed to be made of the same material as the doors and the room, but instead of an odd metallic colour, it was jet black. However, the most remarkable thing about it was that it was shaped like a creature of legend. A creature of myth. It was a dragon. It reminded the man of the titans of old. It was massive in size, taking up the great majority of the enormous chamber, and its eye sockets glowed a blasphemous green. Nevertheless, the creature seemed powerless. Residing in this chamber for an unknowable number of years seemed to have broken its spirit; its wings lay impotent against its side and its arms seemed to have started to crack from the centuries of being suspended by them.

Its head lifted from its bowed state and the thing's eyes stared at the puny being before it.

"HAHAHAHAHA another race comes to meet me" it spoke. Well, not so much spoke as transmitted directly in to his head.

"Wh-" the tall man started.

"You wish for your race to become strong. It is a noble wish and I can offer you the tools to advance humanity to levels never seen before, but you must abandon everything you once knew and ally yourself with me. What say you?" The creature asked.

"How do you know that?" He asked shakily.

"No mortal's thoughts are safe from me, little one." The creature let out some form of hacking cough that may have been a chuckle.

"What about my team?" the man asked

"They will tell command that you died in an accident" the creature gave a vague approximation of a smile.

"Bu-"the man asked timidly.

"I have offered my deal. Now what say you, Jack Harper?" The creature asked again.

"I. I. I accept" The man bowed before the creature.

And so it was that the man known as the demon made a pact with the chained dragon of the void.

3 days passed before another human entered the chamber. There were at least 45 humans on this expedition and they were prepared to take technology with them and to set up a permanent encampment in the odd cavern system.

They met the creature and they dubbed it the Outside of Mars. It only spoke to them in riddles, but it gave them incredibly advanced technology, as well as the ability to quickly reverse engineer the so-called 'Prothean' technology. However, while it only spoke in riddles, it did warn them of that, the creatures who chained it up still existed and that they were not friendly.

It was through this technological boon that humanity advanced several decades if not centuries in only a few short years. Soon, the population of humanity started to skyrocket, and there was no choice but to use the FTL and shipbuilding techniques that the Outside gave them.

Soon, Mars was terraformed so it was suitable for colonisation. But the process of terraforming the entire planet would take time and humanities population explosion did not stop.

In the year 2150 CE, disaster was averted when an exploratory vessel discovered that Pluto's moon Charon was actually a massive construct named a Mass relay. These mass relays allowed instantaneous travel across many light-years of space by creating a massive mass effect field and beating physics to death.

The relay led to the Arcturus system. Humanity built a massive space station in the Arcturus system and dubbed it, rather imaginatively, Arcturus station. This time of human expansion across the galaxy also saw the founding of the systems alliance, a governmental body backed by Earth's most powerful nations. This new regime started the largest military build-up in human history, as thousands of escort-class craft and larger ships were flown out of the shipyards of Earth, Mars and titan.

Over the course of just a few years, Humanity's size increased from 15 billion to near enough 500 billion. An increase that seems to defy belief but the sudden increase in space and the incentives to settle down on new frontier worlds allowed many couples to have many more children than they normally would have.

In the year 2155 CE the military outpost of Shanxi is established. It was a tranquil place that was known to some 6 million colonists as home. Soon, though, the inhabitants of Shanxi would learn that in the universe there is only war.

AN

Phew. I wrote this all in one sitting, so please congratulate me.

R+R please. It really helps me motivates me to get the next chapter out in good time.

As you may be able to tell this is a crossover and 3 guesses to what it is crossed over with! I think I my hints will hit you with the force of a power sword so I expect you, my dear reader, to get it!


	2. Chapter 2

Mass Effect: The War in Heaven

Chapter 2- The first contact war

The year is 2158 CE. Humanity has prospered for the last 10 years, as numerous advances in near enough every field have allowed for rapid expansion across the known galaxy. However, this prosperous period could not last. War would be visited on the dominion of Mankind for the first time by an extra-terrestrial entity.

Turian Battlecruiser, _Valiant._

"Sir, we have visual on 6 ships of unknown origin" an ensign told his commanding officer, Captain Joram Varus,

"Probably pirates or mercs. They have a tendency to cobble together ships" Joram remarked.

Joram was quite proud of his himself. He was only 20 years old and already had a fleet of 10 ships under his command, 1 battle cruiser, 2 frigates and 7 escort ships.

"What are there classes?" He asked the ensign.

"The largest ship is around the size of a frigate and the other 6 seem to be extremely small escorts, sir"

"And what are they doing?" Joram questioned.

"Sir, they appear to be trying to activate relay 314" the ensign replied.

"You all know the law. Prepare to open fire on the ships at my command" He ordered.

Human Frigate, _Glory_

"Sir, we have the unidentified ships targeting us" an officer told Hermann Alaric.

"Have they attempted any kind of peaceful contact?" He asked.

"No, sir"

Hermann sighted. He could see how this was going to end and wished not to engage in battle with ships he didn't know anything about. They were outnumbered almost 2 to 1 and couldn't reach the relay without taking tremendous damage.

"Orders, sir" the officer prompted.

"Raise the shields, acquire a firing solution and give them a hell of a fight. It's been an honour to serve with you" Hermann saluted his crew and waited for the weapons to be armed.

_Glory_ was equipped with few weapons, as it was an exploratory vessel, but it had a single particle whip and some more conventional projectile weaponry. Its shields were strong, but its main defence was an incredibly strong metal, named Invictus. This metal was mainly equipped on exploratory vessels because it can resist most forms of environmental phenomena.

"Sir, the enemy has fired on us" One of the crew told him.

"Tell the fleet to start evasive manoeuvres. Is the particle whip charged yet?"

"Almost charged, sir. All ships have a firing solution"

"Focus fire on the largest ship." Hermann breathed in.

"All ships. Fire!" He ordered.

The frigate shook violently as close to a dozen mass accelerated rounds battered against its shields.

"Status report" Hermann shouted.

"The escort, David, has suffered extensive damage to its engines but the rest of the ships have suffered minimal damage. Our shields are holding at 30% with no casualties.

"Sir, our shots have hit the large ship. Its shields are still holding but barely."

Sir, the particle whip is fully charged" a crewman shouted.

Hermann allowed himself a small smile.

He extended his arm out and said "Fire the weapon. Let these foul xenos know the power of humanity!"

Turian Battlecruiser, _Valiant._

"Sir, our shields are holding at 20%, The enemy concentrated all its fire on us so all other ships are unharmed." an ensign told Joram.

'Out next strike should take out the frigate then the escorts can be mopped up with ease' He thought

"Prepare to fire again. Aim at th-" He started.

"Massive energy build-up in the frigate, sir" a crewman reported

"Wha-" Joram never got to finish his question, as his entire ship was hit with a massive energy blast that bypassed the shields and turned his command bridge to molten slag.

The escort ships watched in horror as a green light ate their flagship. After a few moments the entire of the _Valiant _exploded taking out the 2 frigates that were flanking it.

Human Frigate, _Glory_

Lights flickered on and off as the generator struggled to stay online after the firing of the particle whip.

"Sir, the enemy is withdrawing" A crewman said in awe.

Hermann was astonished. He expected to go down fighting, but never did he expect to win.

"We should retreat back to Shanxi and warn the alliance" Hermann ordered. He had a feeling that this battle was not going to be the last one fought between this race and humanity.

"First, we must enact repairs on the David and scan the wrecks for any kind of information."

"Yes, sir" the crew responded in unison.

"God help us all" Hermann muttered.

Codex: Particle Whip

The particle whip is one of the weapons given to Humanity by the outsider. Like most of the outsider's weapons it takes a tremendous amount of power to fire. Also, it takes a rather long time to charge before firing, and because of this it is not standard issue on mobile units like many of the outsider's pieces of technology. However, it is extremely common on immobile defensive emplacements, as it possible to give the weapon its own generators. Make no mistake, it is an extremely powerful weapon that has turned the tide of many battles and can literally disintegrate most units in its path.

It is less useful in ship-to-ship fights, due, in no small part, to the power constraints and also because it the energy blast can dissipate at the extreme distance most dreadnoughts fight at and due to its expense , few smaller ships are seen as important enough to warrant the cost.

A.N

I was planning on going on to the actual first contact war, but it would seem that the initial battle took a life of its own. I hope you didn't find it too boring to read. I promise the real action will start next chapter. If you can't tell by now, it is a crossover with 40K, so expect ships and fights to become much, much bigger as it goes on.

See you next time, dear reader.


	3. Chapter 3

Mass Effect: The War in heaven

Chapter 3-The first contact war-Part 2-Shanxi

News of the alien assault had thrown the entire alliance in to disarray. An emergency meeting was called by the alliance parliament. This meeting would decide the course of the conflict dubbed 'The first contact war'. News of the attack had yet to spread to the media and, by extension, the public, though it was known to everyone that sooner or later the truth would come out.

Alliance Battlecruiser, _Light bringer, _in orbit around Shanxi

"Sir, we have just gotten word from Arcturus station. They have decided that the attack on the exploratory fleet will be treated as an act of war. They are sending the 2nd fleet to reinforce this sector and they advise us to put ourselves on a defensive footing until the Second arrives in one week." a crewman reported.

Admiral Armin Blucher was worried. Captain Hermann had reported the success of the less conventional weapons in the alliance's arsenal, however his forces were only a defence fleet and so were lacking in the more expensive pieces of weaponry. All told he could bring a hell of a lot of conventional ballistic weapons to bear, but the only ship-to-ship energy weapons his fleet had were mounted on his Battlecruiser. If he was to be engaged by a significant fleet, he may be able to hold it off. 'Hopefully, nothing would happen before the second got to the sector.

"Sir, the system relay is being activated" an ensign shouted.

Armin nodded. "Open a channel to all ships" Armin told his communications officer.

"Boys, it looks like the enemy is coming here. We must not let them take Shanxi. If they take Shanxi this entire sector will fall." He quietened down for a moment to let that settle in."But that doesn't matter. Why you may ask. Because Shanxi will not fall. I will not let Shanxi fall until I am dead and I expect the same from you too. Good luck, Admiral Blucher out" Armin quickly ordered for his small fleet of 20 ships to load their weapons and prepare to fire.

Suddenly, a massive fleet appeared in the space near Shanxi. Armin counted at least 60 ships and among them was a ship similar in size to his own.

"Tell the ships to fire on what they can" the admiral barked.

Shells exploded from all 25 alliance ships and streaked towards the advancing Turian fleet. The ships were so densely packed that it was impossible to start evasive manoeuvres so almost all the shots struck a target. 4 Turian frigates exploded from the volley, but this victory was short-lived, as the Turian returned fire and 10 human frigates and other escort-crafts became miniature suns for a few seconds before being violently snuffed out.

Armin sighed. "All ships fall back to the alpha point. We'll provide covering fire for your withdrawal." Armin ordered.

"Are the particle whips and the chain lightning charged yet?" Armin asked softly.

"Just about, sir" a crewman told him.

"Focus down the largest ship and set all weapons to fire on it. We are getting out of here" Armin told them. No one moved.

"Get your asses in to the escape pods, that's an order" Armin bellowed.

After everyone left the room, Armin reached under his command chair and pulled out a small detonator and set it to activate after 5 minutes, as alliance protocol commanded.

Armin ran to the last shuttle and quickly guided it down to Shanxi, where he would meet up with the military commander, General Williams, and try to sort out the mess.

The turian dreadnought, Publius, had just finished sending the first wave of ground troops down to Shanxi, when it and several other cruisers around it ceased to exist. The entire fleet seemed shocked by the complete destruction of their dreadnought, though they were Turians so they focused all their fire on the ship that fired on them. The _Light bringer almost immediately became a wreck as the fury of the Turian navy was brought down upon it. However, its sacrifice was not in vain, as in the confusion the rest of the fleet limped away._

_The Turians had brought close to 200,000 soldiers and much heavy armour to help conquer Shanxi, but they would find it much more difficult to subjugate this race than they had for any other before them. There would be no help from orbit for the people of Shanxi. The battle for the skies had been lost, but the battle for Shanxi was just beginning…_

_A.N _

_I hope you don't mind the shortness of the chapter. I could have extended it to include a rather large portion of the Shanxi ground combat. But that would have meant the chapter would have take many days to come out what with Christmas coming up. You may notice that I am not following W40K lore perfectly, but if I was to give humanity all of the necrons tools then I would be basically godmodding them, which I do hope to at least kind of stay away from. However rest assured other parts of the necron's arsenal will be brought to bear later._


End file.
